Visual Novel: Umineko: When They Cry aka: Umineko No Naku Koro Ni
Welcome to Rokkenjima.
"When will you believe in me? That is all that matters. If you want to do some detective work, go ahead. If you believe that there is an answer, go and continue to search. This is torture that will not end until you can believe in witches."
Umineko: When They Cry (Umineko no Naku Koro ni, meaning "When the Seagulls Cry") is a kineticsound novel that takes place in 1986, on the island of Rokkenjima. The rich Ushiromiya family is gathering in order to discuss what will happen to patriarch Kinzo's inheritance, since he has been ill in recent days. The protagonist Battler also has returned to his family after 6 years of rebellion and is eager to meet again with his cousins.While the arguments about the inheritance ensue, a typhoon traps all eighteen people on the island. The family then finds a mysterious letter from a person claiming to be Kinzo's alchemy councilor, the Golden Witch, Beatrice. Beatrice claims that she has been summoned by Kinzo to claim the inheritance, as the family has been deemed unworthy of it. Unless someone solves the riddle of the epitaph on her portraitbefore midnight on October 6th and becomes the family successor, Beatrice will claim everything that the family owns, including the ten tons of gold that Kinzo claims will be given to the successor. This is only the beginning of the strange and shocking events that will occur on the island during these two days. Panic, reasoning, romance, heated confrontations and a lot Mind Screw ensues.Similar to its predecessor, Umineko: When They Cry consists of several arcs with the same scenario repeating for mysterious reasons - although unlike Higurashi where each arc was more or less independent, there is a continuity and transition between the arcs here. The first four arcs are the Question Arcs, where the puzzles are presented to the reader. Instead of outright Answer Arcs, the last four arcs are the Core Arcs, which provide the reader several hints on how to solve the mysteries, but without outright giving away the answer. The first sound novel was published in 2007 and the last in 2010.Part of the When They Cry series, which also includes Higurashi: When They Cry.The series currently consists of a sound novel, a manga, and an anime. The sound novel is 8 Episodes in length, along with two fandiscs, Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Tsubasa (When The Seagulls Cry: Wings) and Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Hane (When The Seagulls Cry: Feathers) containing extra short stories called TIPS that don't fit into the main story. The anime adaptation by Studio DEEN spans 26 episodes, but only covers the first four arcs (and considering how badly the DVD sold and a unanimous bashing from the fans, an adaptation of the last four arcs is unlikely). The American branch of Nippon Ichi announced the localization of the anime on 7/30/2012 with a release date scheduled for 12/2012. Currently classified as 18+ due to intense violence which unlike the Japanese version, will be completely UNCENSORED. On a side note, there is also a movement within said fan base to try to get the visual novel (PS3 version) localized as well.Each Episode is also adapted into a manga, published in magazines owned by Square Enix:
Legend of the Golden Witch was published in the Gangan Joker and drawn by Kei Natsumi.
Turn of the Golden Witch was published in G-Fantasy and drawn by Jirō Suzuki.
Banquet of the Golden Witch was published in the Gangan Joker and drawn by Kei Natsumi (again).
Alliance of the Golden Witch was published in Gangan Online and drawn by Sōichirō.
End of the Golden Witch was published in the Gangan Joker and drawn by Taka Aki.
Dawn of the Golden Witch was published in G-Fantasy and drawn by Hinase Momoyama.
Requiem of the Golden Witch is currently published in the Monthly Shōnen Gangan and drawn by Eita Mizuno (better known as the artist of Spiral).
Tsubasa is currently published in the Big Gangan and drawn by Fumi Itō.
In 2012 a doujin manga by Kurumi Suzuhiro, Umineko no Naku Koro ni Shi: Forgery of the Purple Logic, was published the Monthly Comp Ace. It is an independent mystery (i.e unrelated to the main story) using and expanding the mechanics of a mini-game in Episode 8.The entire novel has also been ported to the PS3 for a remake, complete with voice acting, remade sprites and CGs. The first four novels were released as Umineko no Naku Koro ni ~ Rondo of Witches and Reason, and the last four novels were released as Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru ~ Nocturne of Truth and Illusions. Contrary to the PS2 port of Higurashi though, there are no additional arcs or alternate endings.In addition, a PC fighting game in the vein of Melty Blood has been released, entitled Ougon Musoukyoku (The Golden Fantasia), featuring ten of the characters from the novels. An Xbox 360 port, Ougon Musoukyoku X, has also been released, featuring the ten characters, plus three more added to the roster. And an expansion to the PC version, Ougon Musoukyoku CROSS, has also been released, featuring all the characters from the original and the Xbox port, plus three more characters, and three others set to be added as updates.Summaries of each arc may be found at the When They Cry page. Please put character-related tropes on the Character Sheet.Be wary of the terms used on the Umineko pages — "Episode/EP" (with a capital "E") refers to a Story Arc of the novel, while "episode" refers to an episode of the DEEN anime.A fan translation patch of the games may be found here, acknowledged by Ryukishi07 himself. The patches require an original copy of the game, which may be found on the links page of the translation site.
On the fourth twilight, gouge the tropes and kill:
Adaptation Distillation - Just like its predecessor, the manga is generally more faithful and does a better job in some areas of capturing the mood.
It's definitely worth noting that the manga takes things Up to Eleven in almost every aspect, from how pretty the costumes are to how sadistic Beatrice is, to Maria'screepiness◊, to the Bern-Lambda Les Yay. Even how Itsuki Ronove is for Battler.
And lets not forget the facial expressions that often go into Narm territory.
Adaptation Dye Job - Beatrice's dress (in the anime) and of course the eye colors of just about every character (Battler, Jessica, George, Shannon, Lambdadelta, Virgilia, etc...)
Adaptation Expansion − The manga of Episode 8 replaces the quiz mini-game with a game of hide-and-seek and treats us to new scenes, some of them incredibly heartwarming. More generally, the manga adds additional clues and explanations about the gameboard and the mysteries.
Aerith and Bob - Most notably the witches: We've got Lady Bernkastel, Lady Lambdadelta and, of course, Lady Beatrice.
The Ushiromiya have a lot of this too: in the same family you have names like Krauss, Maria, George, Ange and Kinzō. And then there's Battler, which isn't a normal name at all. In the Ushiromiya family's case the trope is justified since Kinzo's obsession with Western culture prompted him to give his children and grandchildren these names, but it's still a little odd that Kyrie has a foreign name even though she's from an austere traditional Japanese family.
All Hallows Eve - Actually, it takes place on October 4 & 5, but Maria is obsessed with Halloween for the first part of the second arc, a fact that is played with very nastily during the first twilight.
All There in the Manual - A number of TIPS were not shown in the game itself but released as side materials; these were generally short stories. Often they were humorous and not meant to be taken seriously ("The Stakes' Valentine's Day"), but some were plot relevant ("The Witches' Tanabata isn't sweet") and others somewhat straddled between the two ("Cornelia the new priest"). Tsubasa collects most of these short stories and presents them in a Visual Novel format.
And then we have Our Confession which is extremely important in that it tells you how Yasu used bribery, trickery and threats to both commit the murders and get the adults to lead Battler towards the truth (for example Eva's talk with Battler about the culprit in Ep1)
Altar the Speed - Part of Eva's plan to have George jump ahead in the succession was to rush a marriage to Hideyoshi. In spite of that, they're quite Happily Married.
Alternate Character Reading - Up the yin-yang in the anime's ending theme, "la divina tragedia". A few examples: "orgy" is read as "banquet", "demon" is read as "my beloved", and "tonight we'll sacrifice this fool" is read as "sacrifice sheep TO GAWD!"
Alternate Timeline - Several of them. A notable one is shown in EP7, where there are no stories of Beatrice as a witch or a ghost who haunts the mansion, Kinzo never wrote the epitaph, and Battler does not come back to Rokkenjima—not to mention the existence of a new family member, Lion Ushiromiya.
Arc Words - "Beatrice 'exists'" (always with inverted commas)
"Without love, it cannot be seen."
"Come, try and remember," often followed by "What form did you have?"
"On that day, what happened?"
Also, "Because I'm furniture." It turns out it doesn't quite mean what it seems to mean at first.
Arranged Marriage - Kasumi was forced into this after Kyrie ran off with Rudolf, which is the reason she hates both Kyrie and Ange so much. Eva also tries to set up George with someone to get Shannon away from him. Also happened to Kinzo when he was chosen as the family head. Similarly, Krauss and Natsuhi.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign - If the letters on the blood runes in the original visual novel are actually supposed to be Hebrew, it is really sloppy Hebrew. The manga writes out the actual letters, evidently.
Audience Monologue - Kumasawa does a few of these in the first arc to explain various issues among the residents of the Ushiromiya mansion.
Awesome Moment of Crowning - Hugely subverted in the third arc. The epitaph is solved, the title of Golden Witch is passed on in a grandiose ceremony, and the murders can stop now, right? Like the letter said, right? Wait, why's Eva-Beatrice pointing her staff at Rosa like that...?And then there was cake.
The Baby Trap - Kyrie claims Asumu pulled one to steal Rudolf out from under her. Later on it turns out that Asumu didn't switch the babies; Rudolf did.
Badass Normal - Most of the Ushiromiya family gets a Badass Normal moment or two, but special mention must go to Kyrie, who's usually the first to start firing off shotgun shells or beating demons and whatnot with chairs while everybody else is still panicking.
EP4, where practically everyone who hasn't been killed in the first twilight gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome, which are all thoroughly underscored with the revelation that everything was going according to the witches' plans.
Bad Future - The world that stems from the events in EP3 is this, in which Eva was the only survivor of the Rokkenjima incident and was left to look after Ange, her only other surviving relative. Unfortunately, over the years they grew to resent one another. By the end of the series, it's clear that this future is in fact what will inevitably happen, with no way to change the events prior to it so that it can turn out differently.
Baleful Polymorph - In EP3, Eva-Beatrice turns Rosa into one of the golden butterflies, which promptly gets blown into a spiderweb.
Bastard Bastard - Discussed by several characters in the early arcs, who theorize that an illegitimate child of Kinzō and Beatrice has come to the island to take revenge and/or claim back the gold. They were right about the first part.
Bat Deduction - Solving the epitaph requires a reasoning that borders on this trope. The key to the Golden Land refers to a six-character word ; "My beloved hometown" is Taiwan ; "The sweetfish river" is a railway ; "The shore that the two will tell you of" refers to a station named Kirigan (which contains twice the "mouth" radical and the character for "shore") ; in Chinese, Kirigan is Qilian (this is the "key") ; then you must understand that in the tenth twilight, "the capital of gold", written 黄金の卿, can be written 黄金の京 ; the 京 character can be read as "kei", which means "ten quadrillion" ; so the first twilight begins at one tenth of that, "one quadrillion" ; then you must remember that the word "quadrillion" is written on the chapel's pediment, and that's where you must remove the six letters of "Qilian" ("sacrifice the six chosen by the key") ; after that you just have to follow the rest.Easy, isn't it?
Beat Still, My Heart - EP 3 features Eva-Beatrice trying to destroy Beatrice's, but failing miserably, with Beatrice's heart refusing to stop beating, because it would leave Kanon and Jessica at Eva-Beatrice's mercy.
The end of EP4 features what is probably one of the most touching moments ever created by this trope.
Be Careful What You Wish For - "The Witches' Tanabata" plays with this: Beatrice pulls the thread on Maria's simple wish, gradually getting her to imagine her ideal world in greater and greater detail. Bernkastel, meanwhile, plays this terribly, horribly straight.
Beat Them at Their Own Game - What Battler is trying to do. All the weapons he has to defend the Muggle possibility are supplied to him by the beings he is trying to deny. This is because Beatrice actually wants him to win.
Begging The Question - Accepting the red text as only speaking the truth requires you believe both that Beatrice is being honest and that the red text speaks only the truth when statements like The red text speaks only the truth! come up. Well, at least that's the case until we see Battler attempt to use the red to say something that turns out to be untrue. That said, it does happen to be true: Anything said in red is at worst misleading.
Then again, the stuff under spoilers possibly occurs to punish those who say things that aren't true in red. Also, red truth is simple truth without evidence or definition of terms. Red truth is only misleading if you don't know the definition which is of course intentionally obscured as part of the game.
Big Damn Heroes - Ange's entrance. Also, in EP6, Beatrice crashing the wedding.
EP5 has all of Beatrice's Furniture come in to counter Erika's argument that Natsuhi is the culprit. While doing so, they beat the everloving shit out of her. In order: Gaap summons a hole at Erika's feet and has it open on the ceiling. Virgilia summons her "Smothered Mate" lance to skewer her. And the Stakes of Purgatory attack her all at once, so by the end she has a giant lance and 7 small stakes going through her.
EP6 also has Kanon breaking out of the closed room Erika created to save Battler from his closed room by switching places with him.
Will's entrance in Episode 7 shows him coming to the rescue of an innocent maid who's being interrogated by his own agency. He does it again for Lion at the end of Episode 7.
EP8 has multiple, surprisingly many pulled off by the antagonists! (and some morally dubious members of the case) Erika saves little Ange from being eaten by goats and Lambda sets off a multi-colored words battle the likes of which have never been seen in game against Featherine. The main cast gets their share too fighting off hoards of goats.
Big Fancy House - The Ushiromiya mansion, complete with servants and a secondary guest house, in case the main mansion wasn't big enough.
Bittersweet Ending - The author intentionally gave you two ways to see this - either bittersweet or as a Downer Ending. Which one really depends on whether you take the mystery or fantasy explanations for what happened. Even with the fantasy stuff, though, it's pretty difficult to say it ends any better than bittersweetly. By the end, almost everyone is still dead. Those who survived (Eva and Ange) still lived pretty miserable lives, although the ending gives Ange a chance to move on. You find out that Battler also survived, albeit amnesiac, traumatized, and crippled. It turns out that the series is about him coming to terms with his past, so in that way, the story ends happily, but in that way only.
Book Ends - In the sound novel, the OP for EP 1 plays in the credits of the Trick Ending in EP 8.
In Episode 8 itself, early in the "game", Beatrice does a sleight of hand in front of little Ange to make a candy appear. Near the end, she does the same sleight of hand, and you have to choose whether this is a trick (leading to the "Trick Ending") or genuine magic (leading to the "Magic Ending"). Of course by this point, the player knows neither answer is right or wrong. Although the Trick Ending can hardly be called a good ending…
Break the Haughty - Bernkastel/Erika's whole scheme in End of the Golden Witch leads to this against Beatrice.
Break the Cutie - What Beatrice does to Shannon in EP2. However, with how the game later implies heavily that Beatrice and Shannon are actually one and the same, it's likely a metaphor for Yasu's self-deprecation.
Breaking the Fourth Wall - In the first half of the series Bernkastel occasionally seems to do this, though whether she's addressing the reader or Battler is unclear.
Broken Aesop - In Episode 6, sort of. Battler, desperate that the reborn Beato is nothing the one he loved, has a conversation with "Beatrice" (well, he's just talking to himself) who says to him that the new Beato is a new person and that he should consider her as her daughter. That doesn't prevent him from treating her very much like the old one and marrying her at the end; the chick Beato also ends up regaining the memories of the old one. So much for "treating her as a person of her own".
The Butler Did It - Shannon and Kanon are usually suspects for many murders. Doubly Subverted throughout the series as many incidents occur which completely dispel the audience's belief that either are involved, but Shannon and Kanon are later revealed to be the same person and heavily involved in the murders.
The Can Kicked Him - In the first arc, Hideyoshi's corpse is found in the shower with the water still running.
Cassandra Truth - Maria keeps trying to warn everyone about Beatrice, but no one believes her.
Cast of Snowflakes - Ryūkishi's drawing skills may be limited, but he admittedly gave all the characters unique designs and faces (outside of the Seven Sisters and Generation Xerox characters).
Casting Gag - Beatrice is played by Sayaka Ohara, who is said to be the successor to Kikuko Inoue's role as go-to-Yamato Nadeshiko actress—incidentally, Inoue plays Beatrice's mentor, Virgilia. (The PS3 port adds Inoue's predecessor, Sumi Shimamoto, but not in any way that could take the gag further, sadly, since she plays Kasumi Sumadera and not a witch.)
Cat Girl: In Umineko: Our Confessions, Beatrice imagines the new demon Flauros to be one, thinking that she should be portrayed as a cute girl.
Bernkastel is a borderline example, since she only has a cat's tail, but she's still strongly associated with cats and from a mundane perspective, is one.
Cat Smile - Maria, when Rosa gives her Sakutaro for her birthday.
And about half of Dlanor's expressions.
Catch Phrase - Battler's: "It's useless, it's all useless!"
Both Kyrie's and Battler's: "Turn the chessboard around."
Erika Furudo: "Simply by X, this level of reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika. What do you think, everyone?" and "<Good!>"
Eva-Beatrice's: "Why don't you just give up and die?!" − In Japanese "Heso kande shinjaeba~?", or "Why don't you bite your navel and die?"
Clair's: "Oh, I am one yet many." − the Japanese phrase is the convoluted "Ware koso ha ware nishite, warera nari" ; roughly "I am 'I', and yet I am 'We'".
Character Shilling - Played for dark humor in the fifth and sixth chapters. The narration itself is clearly bent by Bernkastel and Lambdadelta so that the story will constantly gush about Erika Furudo, as do the characters to a slightly lesser extent. However, she is clearly a complete bitch.
Chekhov's Gun - Shannon mentioning a Childhood Marriage Promise between her and Battler in EP3 is one. Beatrice mentioning the Knox's Decalogue in Episode 2 is another.
Chekhov's Gunman - Ange and Gaap are mentioned in the first novel (Ange is specifically stated to be bedridden with flu and can't join the...festivities; Maria mentions Gaap's powers as one way for Beatrice to smuggle Kinzo out of his room without breaking the closed circle). The anime's Image Songs also have Maria mention Sakutaro once near the end of her song; when the single was released, the anime was still midway into its third arc, when Sakutaro only appears in the fourth, sixth and eight.
Willard H. Wright was first mentioned off-handedly a TIPS from Episode 5, as the head of the SSVD, "Wizard-Hunting Wright".
The Chessmaster - The repeated invocation of a chess board by, oh, everyone regarding this plot. As of this writing, the only ones who seem capable of applying for the trope are the witches, although Battler seems like something of a chessmaster-in-training.
As of EP5, Battler becomes the Endless Sorcerer, with approval by Lambdadelta. This means that he is now the game master, like Beatrice in the previous episodes. He has also gained the ability to use the Golden Truth.
Cliché Storm - invoked Episode 4's legendary fight between Krauss and a goatman has the antagonists invoke Nothing Can Stop Us Now, Retirony, and the typical Villain Ball move of 'promises are made to be broken' multiple times in quick succession, finishing it off with some Gretzky Has the Ball boxing gibberish. It's Lampshaded the whole way through.
Closed Circle - Due to a typhoon that prevents anyone from leaving the island until it dies down.
Compressed Adaptation - The anime is a victim of this, but special mention goes to the fourth arc, which entirely cuts out the action sequence when Kanon and Shannon's group escapes from the underground prison as well as the whole scene where Battler wanders around the empty mansion, examining everyone's corpses (meaning that the anime doesn't even show you that Maria was killed or that Kanon's corpse can't be found). This was the trade-off for what many saw as too much time given to the 1998 and metaworld sequences.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the fighting game. The AI gets to forgo the directional sequence before a special move, allowing scenarios like AI!Battler invoking the Metaworld and blowing you to hell with three Meta supers in a row, which would be impossible for a human to fit in if you factor in the movements.
Contrived Coincidence - As stated on the character sheet, Erika is a detective prodigy who just happens to shipwreck on an island with a soon-to-be murder mystery. Which is less contrived if you assume that the real Erika was actually a corpse and that the Insufferable GeniusGreat Detective we all Love to Hate is a character created by Bernkastel.
Creator Breakdown - After Ryukishi's dear friend BT died, Umineko took on a very different tone from EP 6 onwards.
Creepy Cathedral - Kinzo had a special chapel built near the mansion, where the first twilight of the second arc takes place. Happy Halloween for Maria indeed.
Crossover - The Umineko No Naku Koro Ni X manga is a rather comical and energetic crossover with Higurashi, plopping the Ushiromiya manor within spitting distance of Hinamizawa. So, if you ever want to see Rena mowing their lawn, Rudolf hanging out with the Stakes in Angel Mort, or Battler perplexed by the whole deal, this is it.
Cruel and Unusual Death - The first twilight of Episode 2. The bodies of Krauss, Natsuhi, Eva, Hideyoshi, Rudolph, and Kyrie are found locked inside the chapel with bloody candies spewing out of their bellies. Their internal organs are found lying on the ground next to the bodies, apparently having been forced out by the surge of candy.
Curb-Stomp Battle - Something like this: In Episode 5, Bernkastel introduces Canon Sue and new furniture to kill Beatrice, further her own plans, and royally screw with the status quo. Eventually, Battler and Beato's furniture decide that they are having none of this. Epic smackdown ensues.
An even bigger one in Episode 8: Lambdadelta challenges Featherine to a battle. Featherine doesn't even bother explaining HOW she wins, she just decrees it so, then promises to go back and write an impressive fight-scene later.
Cycle of Hatred - Too many to mention, to the point where there's even a character who exists as an incarnation of it.
Darkest Hour - Episode 5. Battler is impaled on a sword, Piece!Beatrice is dead, Bernkastel and Erika have taken over the gameboard and intend to thoroughly erase everything related to Beatrice, and Natsuhi is falsely framed as a despicable murderer and a whore who slept with the man she calls Father, without anyone managing to prove her innocence. Made all the more frightening by the fact that by that point you expect a twist to happen in the Tea Party. It doesn't. Then, to nail a bit more, the hidden Tea Party opens with the real Beatrice's death. And then, finally, Battler comes back and takes a level in badass.
Darkness Induced Audience Apathy - Both In-Universe and invoked. In fact, it's largely the point of the final episode, which points out that the Ushiromiya family could not have been nasty to each other all the time and that the previous episodes more or less both showed the family at their worst and that said worst is more or less only the theories of a bunch of gossipers.
Dark Reprise - goldenslaughterer is already a pretty dark BGM to begin with, since it plays during the more cruel deaths, but it gets a darker and more intense remix as the_executioner in EP7, which plays during the fight between Will and Bernkastel.
In EP5, Erika. She's fully aware that as a detective, people die wherever she goes.
Dead Alternate Counterpart: Episode 7 revolves around a new character named Lion discovering his/her alternate self Beatrice, who dies tragically in every single timeline other than his/her own.
Deadly Euphemism - Let's open the door to the Golden Land! i.e. Let's blow up the island and everyone on it!
Death by Materialism - Kinzo doesn't seem to care about any of his children at least partly because he doesn't like them fighting over his inheritance.
Death Is Cheap - Because of the Groundhog Day Loop, the fact that furniture apparently can be recreated without much difficulty, even if their very existence has been denied, and the powers of any with with the Endless title to kill and resurrect someone infinitely. However, later on this is subverted: everyone revives as pieces at the beginning of each new game, but in the real world, everyone is really Deader Than Dead and nothing can change it.
Death's Hourglass - The clock that appears in the corner of the screen, of the spur-to-action variety.
When the Clock Strikes Twelve - Twice. Usually, on the first day, there will be a time jump from around midnight to around six AM, implying that that's when the first murders occur, although the fourth arc is a little different. By midnight of the second night, well...
If you take an anti-fantasy stance, it can also be seen as one of the fantasy genre, since many of the fantastic elements are implied to be a product of a human character's imagination which is in turn fueled by their loneliness.
Deconstructor Fleet - If there is a trope, you can bet that Umineko will either subvert it or play it straight with the most disturbing consequences possible. It also goes out of its way to subvert many tropes that were played straight in Higurashi.
Decoy Protagonist - Battler has the main role in the first half of the story. In Chiru, however, you could say that the main character is actually Beatrice, or even Ange. Ryukishi himself admits that "there are many main characters".
Defeat by Modesty - Kanon against Lucifer in the anime. He slashes a nice, clean, boob window onto her shirt.
Depending on the Author - In-universe example. There are several noticable differences between the writings of Yasu (Ep 1-2) and Tooya/Battler (Ep 3-6). For example, Yasu was filled with self-loathing and therefore wrote Beatrice as a cruel villain. On the other hand Battler, who loved Beatrice/Yasu, wrote her in a more gentle light. Also Yasu never assumed that Battler remembered his and Shannons relationship as kids and therefore Battler never showed any interest in Shannon in Ep 1-2 (to the point where he is more worried about Kanons honor than Shannons death). But, Battler did love Shannon and pointed out early in Ep 3 that she was his first love.
Deus ex Machina - The gold truth. It appears rather conveniently.
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything - In Ougon Musou Kyoku, you can't chose teams composed of the same character (Battler/Battler or EVA/EVA, for example). However, if you hack the game to do it, you can find out that the developers added quotes for calling the characters (every time you change the active character by doing a Normal Touch, the active character will call the other). For example, in an Erika/Erika team, Erika will say "Witch of Truth!", her title, during a Normal Touch. Also, the characters sometimes have conversations with their partners in the Arcade mode. Guess what? Even same character teams have this. For example, if you play Arcade mode using a Lucifer/Lucifer team, during their conversation Lucifer will scold the other one for not being so effective in battle.
Did You Actually Believe? - End of the 3rd arc when Battler is about to lose, again. Beato pulls this off and brags about how her "tsundere" technique worked, and that Battler's a sucker for it. Later subverted when it's found out she wasn't acting at all, and really is that nice.
Well, Beatrice was acting when she trolled Battler to keep him on the path towards the truth, which meant when she was being nice she was acting like a troll who was acting like Beatrice.She's that kind of girl.
Distant Finale: Episode 8's Hidden Tea Party. Decades later, Ange becomes a famous author under the alias "Yukari Kotobuki". Having become famous, she attracts the attention of Tohya Hachijo, who turns out to be two people, one of which was Battler, who lost his memories and regained them. Ange and Tohya meet, but Tohya couldn't associate himself with his identity as "Battler". In the end, Ange invites Ikuko and Tohya to the reopening of the Fukuin House to let Tohya come to terms with his past.
Doing in the Wizard - A plot point. If Battler can Do In The Wizard, he wins his and Beatrice's game. Beatrice would, presumably, disappear. While it's never outright stated, the second half of the series does drop a lot of hints that witches and other magical beings may not actually be real in the first place.
Doorstopper - The entire novel (all eight episodes) clocks at around 6 MB as a text file. Compare War and Peace, which is around 3 MB. Even more impressive knowing that Ryūkishi07 wrote in less than 4 years. And that's not even counting Land of the Golden Witch, the original Episode 3 that was scrapped.
As for the manga, the first English volume—the first half of the manga adaptation of EP 1—is 512 pages long. The second half is supposed to be 624 pages long. That's because the English edition regroups 2 volumes in 1.
Double Entendre - The entire wedding scene in EP6, particularly when Erika tries to forcibly put a too small wedding ring on Battler's finger after lubing the ring and his finger up with saliva and insists that she will shove it into "the deepest part."
And in case you didn't get the subtext, the manga has Erikasweating and panting heavily during the whole scene.
Double Standard Abuse Female On Male: Averted when Erika is about to seal Battler's will. Threatening to magically force someone into eternal servitude, in which… things… shall be done to the servant for all of eternity, is treated every bit as dramatically as it should be, no matter the genders. There's also the incident with Beato's initial victory and what then happened to Battler.
Drink Order - Tea. Tea tea tea tea tea tea tea. Everyone drinks tea. Especially Beato, Lambda, and Bern (They are called "tea parties," after all, right?) But Bern usually specifies that she wants umeboshi (sour, pickled plum) tea.
Driving Question - The question that drives the first half of the series is who killed everyone on the island. The question that drives the second half of the series is who Beatrice is.
Drunk with Power - Leading to a rampage of perversion in this spoilery sidestory (which takes place after Episode 5), though like many other TIPs it's Played for Laughs.
Apparently Yasu's motivation for becoming Beatrice, specifically, the first taste of magic by being possessed by Gaap.
Duel to the Death - In EP1, Between Natsuhi and Beatrice. In EP3, Between Rudolph and Belphegor. In EP6, One between Kanon and Shannon and another one between Beatrice/Battler and Erika
Earn Your Fun - Several characters state multiple times that the answers won't be given to those who don't try to search for them. Thus most of the tricks for the murders are left for the readers to solve themselves, whith Will just giving vague and cryptic answers for the first 4 games in Episode 7. But not for the 5th game.
Easily Forgiven: Genre Savvy Beatrice actively tries to cultivate this and then lampshades it in the third arc. In the fifth arc, it's revealed that even that was an act, and Beatrice was really a Stealth Mentor.
Enemy Without: Bernkastel to Rika Furude. To summarize, she's representative of all the Rikas who died in June 1983. Released from Rika's subconsciousness after surviving.
Eureka Moment/The Summation - Subverted. When such a moment occurs, Battler's or Erika's deductions are often partially or completely off.
Even Evil Has Standards - The third arc has Beatrice trying to impress this on Eva-Beatrice. It fails, horribly.
Everybody's Dead, Dave - Happens twice to Ange in Episode 8, the first time when she learns the truth that everyone except Eva died on Rokkenjima and nobody is coming back. The second time is a subversion as it's the villains who announce that to Ange and Battler, after the destruction of the Golden Land.
Everyone Is A Suspect - Almost every single character is a suspect for one murder or another.
Evil Phone - Hardly ever works; the one time it does during the first arc is when it starts ringing while everyone's holed up in Kinzo's room. Natsuhi picks it up and hears...a little girl singing.
Every single time the phone rings in EP5, it's for Natsuhi, and a man claiming to be her son from 19 years ago gives her strange orders and taunts her mercilessly.
Evolving Credits - The witch portrait changes each arc (default-Beatrice, then Zettai Ryouiki-Beatrice, then Eva-Beatrice); the fourth arc simply shows all three portraits in reverse order. Starting in the third arc they also added 15 new characters to the opening and changed the positioning of four others to reflect their relationship. By the fifth arc, Erika now has a portrait in the opening, and by the seventh, all of the previous portraits plus Battler's and Wright and Lion's are seen.
Played in multiple episodes where it is shown that the goat heads are actually wearing "masks." EP2 shows Bern taking off a goat head; EP4 had Goat-kun which, as mentioned above, reflects on his life; and EP6 has the entire Ushiromiya family taking off goat heads during Beato and Battler's wedding.
Failed a Spot Check - One or two of the riddles, most notably the Kanon-in-the-closet one from EP 6 seriously relies on this (It's not that there's no body in the closet - it's that the body is now inhabited by Shannon or Beatrice rather than Kanon).
The Fair Folk - While they're called "witches" and have all the traditional trappings, their existence, playing with reality and fiction and following seemingly nonsensical rules, has many similarities.
Fair Play Whodunnit - This work is somewhat bipolar towards this trope. The very first trailer started with the words "No Knox. No Dine. No Fair". Then it begins with a fairly normal mystery plot which flies out of the window as witches and other magical beings keep appearing. But upon rereading earlier episodes it becomes obvious that all revelations were hinted at.
In Episode 5 a new character is introduced whose name is Ronald A. Knox backwards, who gives the possibility that the Knox rules are true in the game, scolds the reader for getting distracted from the mystery by the fantasy elements and outright states that the author wants the reader to solve it on their own. Beatrice herself actually states that the novels follow the Knox decalogue as early as EP2 when she and Battler are arguing over hidden doors; most people don't notice this the first time around.
Episode 7 follows Episode 5's trend and introduces an incarnation of Willard H. Wright (the real name of S.S. Van Dine), who shows up to 'bury' Beatrice and reveal her heart. The ultimate answer is that, while the story is far from a traditional Fair-Play Whodunnit, it still is solvable with use of foreshadowing and reasoning.
The anime drops this entirely, in favor of best visual presentation probably. The first arc doesn't even provide enough evidence to solve it as a mystery, and later arcs are reboots in which circumstances change, previous pasts are revealed in ways that couldn't be known to most of the characters, and even characters differ without demonstrating development.
Faking the Dead - Several murders are only possible by the use of this trick. It's then horribly subverted in Episode 6 where everyone was faking their deaths to play a prank on Erika… after which she proceeds to decapitate all of them to make sure there are dead, thus preventing anyone to save Battler and trapping him into a logic error.
Fanservice - The game has the Stakes, the anime has...pretty much every other female.
The Alliance Manga has a not-so-surprising amount of it considering half of it is centered on Ange and the Seven Sisters, plus the Chiester Sisters. With Ange, the authors seem to go out of their way to always be just an inch away from the Panty Shot.
Fan Translation - Witch Hunt, which actually got an acknowledgment from the author and a Shout Out in EP4. And it is most certainly well-deserved. A Spanish translation is also available. A French one was started at some point, and the translation of Episode 1 was complete, but it got stopped for copyright issues (or something; it's not very clear).
Fantastic Fragility - Beatrice explains that, while she could very easily use her magic in ways that leave her utterly invulnerable, it is much more effective to leave the Ushiromiya family a chance (however slim) of successfully defeating her. To illustrate the reasons for this, a comparison is drawn between magic and gambling — the greater the "risk", the greater the "reward", so a sure chance of victory leaves nothing to gain. However, it's entirely possible that this isn't meant literally; Bernkastel claims that boredom is the only way to kill a witch, and it's very possible that the "no risk, no reward" paradigm is entirely psychological, as if they leave themselves no chance of losing a game, it is no challenge, and therefore "boring". But given that Beatrice isn't even trying to win in the first place, it's also entirely possible that none of this is relevant, or even true, especially after more mundane explanations for anything magical are revealed in the second half of the series.
Fascist Gold - The true origin of the 10 tons of gold, as revealed in Episode 7.
Fashionable Asymmetry - The Ushiromiya crest is a one-winged eagle, so it's only to be expected. Ange has a vertical assymmetry, with a fully covering top that has very long sleeves, yet an extremely short skirt.
A Fate Worse Than Death - Thanks to Endless magic, people can be killed over and over again in new and interesting ways. This pales in comparison to the closed room Battler gets trapped in in EP6.
In that same episode, it's shown even Lambdadelta is scared by the hell of being trapped in a logic error. "Hey....are you guys...really.....real?" Asking if the people she's talking to are there, and not just delusions of a mind that went insane from being trapped in a logic error.
Faustian Rebellion - Battler is trying to prove that witches and magic don't exist, while at the same time arguing with them and watching the period of time played out over and over. It's a miracle he doesn't just disappear in a Puff of Logic. Battler himself notes the irony.
Fighting a Shadow - Even if Beatrice (and Battler, for that matter) die on the chessboard, since their souls actually exist in the meta-world, they're fine to play another round.
Flat Earth Atheist/Nay Theist - Battler can be interpreted as being either of these at the beginning of the story, what with all the witches running around. However, as the story progresses, Battler's arguments and reasoning change as well, as he realizes that he doesn't need to disprove witches, just that witches commited the murders and mysteries. By EP6, he finds out the solution of the games and switches sides, becoming the Endless Sorcerer, and allies with Beatrice. Let's just say it's complicated and leave it at that.
Foreshadowing - This being a murder mystery, there's bound to be loads of them. One plot related one, having nothing to do with the mystery aspect, occurs in EP 4 when Battler says that he'll put Beato's name on the Death Sheet in the place of his true love (it was part of a gamble where he either had to kill himself, his love, or his family). In EP 6, they marry.
Beatrice actually states the story is supposed to follow the Knox rules in EP2, although it comes off as pretty offhand.
While many of the hints don't mean very much on their own during the first read through, there's a lot of foreshadowing for the fact that Beatrice, Shannon and Kanon are all the same person.
In fact as soon as you know this, every conversation between them changes radically.
In fact there are so many hints dropped in the first 2 Episodes that as soon as you know the truth you realize that you actually can solve the series with the first Episode alone.
A rather funny one happens early on in Episode 1, by Krauss: "My father is already dead. What is inside this study is only a shadow of his past self." Quite literally, yeah.
This link shows you just how much of a goldmine Episode 1 is in that department.
For Want of a Nail - EP7 presents an alternate 1986: Natsuhi accepts the baby that Kinzo asked her to adopt. Because of this, the epitaph does not exist, and there are no mentions of Beatrice as a witch or a ghost in the mansion.
Freudian Excuse - Rosa often uses this to rationalize her Mother of the Year harsh treatment towards Maria. Her's own parents and siblings showed little mercy towards her when she was growing up, so she believes holding back on Maria would be "spoiling" her.
Even that might not always help - if the Fanon theory about EP6 is true, EP2's Red Truth that Kanon died in this room! can only be true metaphorically.
The Gad Fly: Ronove and his snarky attitude towards Beato. Shannon can act this way as well.
Gainaxing - In the anime with anyone with developed breasts.
It also appears in the game Ougon Musoukyoku. Shannon's boobs jiggle every time she performs a special attack.
Gambit Pileup - Most non-magical explanations for the murders in any given arc require multiple murderers, often working at cross-purposes, and different ones for each arc.
Gambit Roulette - Episode 3, where Beatrice's strategy hinges upon Eva-Beatrice, Battler, and Eva all taking a very specific set of actions.
Bernkastel was probably The Man Behind the Man on this very one, adding yet another layer to the entire thing: Beatrice had to take a very specific action at the end for Bern's own plans to work out.
If Episode 8 is to be trusted, Battler pulls one off in Episode 6. His humiliating defeat at the hands of Erika, threatening to forever trap his mind in a logic error, was so that Beatrice could be revived and come to his rescue.
Game Between Heirs: The successor to the Ushiromiya family's headship and fortune (which includes ten tons of solid gold) seemed to be locked and set in stone and then a letter from the resident witch arrived, announcing that the spoils have been made fair game to anyone who can solve the Witch's Epitaph, a long riddle which incidentally, details a ritual requiring human sacrifice. Mind games (and lots andlots of murder) ensue.
Gender Neutral Writing - Episode 7, to the point it's lampshaded. Now imagine you are a French or German translator for this Episode. You can start to cry in despair.
Genre Busting - Fantasy? Mystery? One with elements of the other? Nope! Try "romance with fantastical mystery Jungian-psychological elements".
Genre Shift - Starts as a classical murder mystery but veers more and more towards fantasy as the story progresses… Or so Beatrice would like to make you think.
Geodesic Cast - With the exception of Maria's branch, most of the cousins' families work kind of like this - one mother, one father, and one child. It gets more confusing later, with the introduction of Ange and Yasu.
Getting Crap Past the Radar - In EP3 of the sound novel, while trying to explain playing with letters and anagrams, Rudolf says "… It's like 'Sucker Merry Barrels'. What do you get when you take out the e's and r's?"
Glove Slap - In EP6, Beatrice throws a white glove at Erika, challenging her to a duel. Refusing would forever mark her a coward in the eyes of the entire magical community.
Go Mad from the Isolation - What happens to people who get trapped in a logic error. Specifically, Lambdadelta and especially Bernkastel. Doesn't make up for the horrible things she's done, but you still sympathize with her, considering Bernkastel's logic error wasn't even her own fault - she was only a piece in that game. Her master, the player, created the logic error, then abandoned the game, leaving a piece that knows nothing with the task of solving the error to escape. The fact that, after hundreds of years, she was able to do so is why she became the Witch of Miracles.
Go Karting with Bowser - Battler and Beatrice have a dialogue (and applause contest) at Eva's succession ceremony.
Gold Fever - All four siblings to some extent, but particularly strongly with Eva. EP7 shows how the Japanese and Italian forces on the island wiped each other out over the massive load of gold; the siblings then repeat this in the tea party.
Somewhat subverted actually: it's lampshaded in the same Episode that since the gold is of unknown origin, no one will want to change it for cash legally. Meaning this shining 10 ton mountain is practically worthless.
Gorn: Read the description of the first murder of the first arc, and then try saying it's not.
The first arc? Try the second arc, what with the "Happy Halloween Maria" thing…
Gothic Punk - The plot and style share many, many similarities in common with the Gothic novels of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Gratuitous English - There are a bunch of cases. Please don't list them here, or this will get too long.
Gratuitous French - The fighting game's opening is full of it, it is a translation of the witch's epitaph in French. Also, every sentence under the health bar is also displayed in bad french: for example, you can see under the message counter hit "sens inverse coup" whereas a more fitting translation would be "contre"
Mariage Sorcière.
Gratuitous Greek - Lambdadelta (ΛΔ) as well as the firing sequence of the Chiesters.
Greek Chorus - If the meta-world didn't turn into its own subplot, it would be a very developed one of these. However, a more straightforward example occurs in the sixth arc, with Featherine and Ange taking up this role.
Gretzky Has the Ball- Ep 6 With all the chess talk up to this point about pieces, moves, and checks, Lambdadelta all of a sudden starts using poker terminology when asking to see Battler's "cards" to fix the logic error. Battler joins in too talk about flushes and straights. It goes back to chess when Erika declares checkmate though
Groundhog Day Loop - Only magical/meta-characters (and "furniture") are aware of this, though, and each arc is actually a different world. By EP8, this turns out to be subverted, since the whole series is actually Recursive Canon. The first six arcs are just different interpretations of the events that took place on Rokkenjima (EP1 and 2 are message bottles that were written by Yasu, which washed up on the shores of Japan, while EP3-6 are novels written by Toya Hachijou, formerly Battler Ushiromiya).
Guide Dang It: One answer at the end of Episode 7 is actually in the TIPS of Episode 6, and most people probably missed it. If you Execute Erika, you will see her fate in the real world (that she fell from the boat and went missing, with her parents thinking that she washed off on Rokkenjima). The "Rokkenjima accident" is called the "Rokkenjima Explosion Accident", while it was left vague in Episode 4.
Guilt-Based Gaming - The end of Episode 2 is basically Beatrice giving one big, painful slap in the face to Battler for giving up so easily. Nope, dear readers, not thinking and just accepting everything is the work of the Witch is not an option.
Gut Punch - During 10 long chapters, we see nothing but cousins joking, siblings talking about the economic context of Japan, two lovebirds making a marriage promise and a little girl reading a slightly unsettling letter. Time jump to the morning after… THEY HAVENO FACE!!!
Happily Married - Oddly enough, the most stable couple (the wife's problems come from elsewhere) is Eva and Hideyoshi. And when Hideyoshi kicks it, Eva completely SNAPS and goes madder than she already is. In EP6, Battler and Beatrice as well.
In Episode 4, Beatrice is impaled by giant blue spikes when she can´t (or won´t) deny Battler's theories.
In Episode 5, we have Dlanor manifesting the power of Knox's Decalogue in red swords, culminating in Dlanor denying Battler's theories and impaling him a gigantic sword. What happensafterward must beseen to be believed.
Heir Club For Men - Eva was almost pushed out of the line of succession because when she married Hideyoshi, she should have lost her name. However, she convinced Kinzo to adopt Hideyoshi as an Ushiromiya, allowing herself to retain her position (Rosa retains hers because no one even knows who she married). This is also a reason, along with George's older age, that Eva thinks he should be ahead on the succession.
Heroic BSOD: Hilariously subverted. Ronove says that Battler was so shocked by Beatrice's plan to trick him into believing in her that he refused to talk or eat, but then he shows up fighting with one of the Seven Sisters of Purgatory for a basket of bread rolls. Ronove was just teasing her.
Later played straight and brought Up to Eleven when Battler finds out that the woman he thought was his birth mother, really wasn't his mother at all. He subsequently stops existing for half an arc.
Heroic Sacrifice - Several. For example, Jessica throwing herself in front of Kanon to block one of the stakes in EP2, Ange revealing her name to snap some sense into Battler in EP4, and Kanon trading places with Battler in the closed room in EP6.
Hide Your Lesbians - An odd example. Even after Bernkastel and Lambdadelta have said repeatedly and unambiguously that they love each other, the narration and the characters continue to call them "friends". It's a bit jarring.
Hijacked by Ganon - Taken to Up to Eleven as Bernkastel and Lambdadelta successfully usurped the villain's role and are aiming for the role of the hero as well too by means of invoking Decoy Protagonist.
Hot Mom - Although all the aunts are noticeably attractive, Rosa probably fits the description best. But it's subverted pretty early on, when it's revealed what a facade it is.
How We Got Here - The very first scene in EP5 is the last scene on that world's gameboard. This was the first scene for meta-Battler, as well, before the Bern and Lambda rewound the story for him. EP6 does this as well, starting with Battler's horrific defeat and a closed room prison that is revisited multiple times before it finally makes sense.
Human Chess - Deliberately invoked by pretty much the whole plot.
If I Wanted You Dead - How Rosa argues her innocence in EP2: She's been carrying around a loaded rifle since the first Twilight. If she wanted anyone dead, they would be dead.It doesn't change that Rosa is at least an accomplice of the culprit in that Episode.
I Have You Now, My Pretty - A rare Gender Flipped version of this occurs in EP6 when Erika forces Battler into marrying her after she has effectively locked his mind inside his own closed room.
I Kiss Your Foot - Kanon does this to Beatrice so Shannon might not be chosen as a sacrifice in episode 2.
Also, all of the episodes of the visual novel are named "_____ of the Golden Witch".
I'm a Humanitarian - Characters occasionally get ripped to shreds and eaten by the goat people. Rosa gets force-fed parts from her siblings and her daughter at the end of the second arc; Crosses the Line Twice in the anime when Maria's severed head starts talking and happily tries to shove itself down her throat.
Imaginary Friend - Sakutaro is given this treatment, although he's actually a stuffed animal.
Also, Eva has her teenaged younger self as an imaginary friend in the third Episode. Too bad Eva-Beatrice is even more nuts than Eva has ever been.
In EP5, Beato and Kinzo's phantom can be thought of as imaginary friends to Natsuhi.
A recurring theme in the story is how the creation of one or more of these is used by various characters as a way of coping with psychological stress. Maria's case especially is discussed in detail by Ange in EP4, and aside from Eva and Natsuhi, this is eventually revealed to be how Yasu, the real Beatrice, dealt with his/her orphan's ordeal and the injuries to his/her body..
In EP 6 when Battler as the Game Master creates a piece version of Beato that acts like old Beato due to his distress over the chick version of Beato. It gets even sadder when you realize that he's talking to himself through her.
This looks rather strange in some flashbacks. Victorian dresses of the Ushiromiyas next to the T-shirts of pedestrians?
The creator can't be bothered with drawing new sprites every time someone changes an outfit. It's also shown that some characters have street clothes (George's alternate sprite has him wearing jeans and a "Tomitake Flash" t-shirt, along with a dogtag), while others seem to only have 2 outfits. Maria is seen in either pajamas or her white dress before going crazy. The anime, manga, and PS3 remake all give characters casual clothes when needed, however.
In this interview the author says some characters clothes are designed to challenge a female coworker and cosplayer. This is the case of Gaap.
Improbably Female Cast - The human cast is pretty balanced. In the fantasy cast however, there are exactly five male characters (Ronove, Sakutarō, Will, either Zepar or Furfur, and BATTLER). Bar those five, all the witches, furniture, demons and other fantastic agents are female.
Inadequate Inheritor - Kinzo feels this way about his whole family. The "real" successor, Krauss, seems to show this as well.
Incest Is Relative - In EP7 it is implicitly revealed that Shannon and Kanon are George and Jessica's aunt (or uncle) and half-cousin, simultaneously. Of course, Yasu doesn't find out about his/her parentage until about two years before the story begins, and George and Jessica never find out at all.
Also, in the end of the second arc, when Maria's disembodied head tells Rosa to eat her Battler tells Maria to "It's ten years too early for you to tell someone to eat you. But make sure you tell me that ten years from now, okay? It's a promise."
Indecisive Medium - Are the games books? Movies? RP Gs? Self-aware books? (Also applies to the Meta-World: Dlanor speaks once about the making of a tea that she's drinking, saying "everybody accepts it as magic, so it appears as such in the narration".)
Physical form is just a convenience, apparently. Colored text has been depicted in the visual novel as: colored dialogue (with a nice sound effect to make it all the more cool), slashes, spears, and swords, all of the appropiate color. The TIPS even refers to these swords as "conceptual weapons that could take any form". We later discover this also applies to some characters; see The Treachery of Images.
Inter-Class Romance - George, a member of the obscenely wealthy Ushiromiya family falls in love with Shannon, one of the servants at the main house.
Inverted Portrait: Battler in the Umineko Motion Graphic 6 has a couple of seconds where he's shown upside down, flashing through a sea of memories.
Invisible to Normals - Witches, although who qualifies as "normal" seems to shift between arcs.
Ironic Echo - If you hear echoes in your head of Beato's and Virgilia's exchange when you start reading exchanges between Beato and Eva-Beatrice later on in that arc, you aren't the first.
Bernkastel's spin on the Arc Words "Without love, it cannot be seen".
Irony - In the author commentary of Minagoroshi-hen, Ryukishi07 wrote that it was fun to make theories about the mysteries, but that it was frustrating if you couldn't compare them to the one right answer given by the author at the end. Less than two years later, he started to write a series where, not only is the name of the culprit not given, literally half of the plot is left to the interpretation of the reader.
Natsuhi pushed Yasu (and the servant carrying him/her) off of a cliff because of her frustration over her seeming inability to have children. Well, thanks to Natsuhi, Yasu's body is damaged to the point of being unable to have children, among other things.
Jesus Taboo - Played straight, barely: in the anime, Beatrice makes reference to "a single man" who "appeared thanks to a star's guidance and finally explained the single element (love) that makes up the world." She then asks Shannon if she knows who the man is, but the question is rhetorical. The TIPS section for EP4 mentions a magical grimoire that has "a history of over 2000 years, is currently still in circulation, and continues to acquire new alliance members even now."
Averted in EP7 when Maria tells Will about her belief that she was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, since Rosa kept telling her that she didn't have a father. To back this up, she quotes from the Book of Matthew (1:23) and states that since Jesus was born from the virgin Mary, she may have been born the same way.
Kangaroo Court - The Rosa torture scene has more than a few elements of this, especially in the visual novel. Also played terribly straight with Natsuhi's trial at the end of EP5.
Kansas City Shuffle - Right from the first arc, Battler deconstructs exactly why the chessboard thinking he tries to use isn't going to work - because he doesn't know the rules of the game. Because he doesn't know the rules of the game, he has no idea which moves will result in which pieces being taken.
Karma Houdini - The third arc casts Eva as one responsible for most of the deaths, and she shoots Battler when he confronts her over this. Then in the Bad Future we learn that the subsequent police investigation cleared her completely, leaving her with the entire family fortune. She is still considered the villain by the general public, though, and spends the rest of her life in torment.
According to the Tanabata side story, Eva was willing to care for and love little Ange as her own daughter, but Bernkastel poisoned their relationship for her own amusement.
Then the seventh and eight arcs pretty much confirm that Eva is, in fact, a Silent Scapegoat, hiding the truth of Rokkenjima to keep the public from desecrating it, as well as to protect Ange, who she fears would Go Mad From The Revelation.
Bernkastel has a lot of them. In the VN, there are multiple troll sprites for this character.
Kids Are Cruel - Rosa's justification for her treatment of Maria (or the one she tells people anyway; in Maria's backstory we find out that Rosa hates her a good deal for just being). Basically, "All the children make fun of her! Don't you see?! Beating her will obviously make her stop whining!"
Killed Off for Real - The following is said in gold text: "I guarantee that this corpse is Kinzo Ushiromiya's corpse!"
Everyone except Eva, Ange, and Battler. Eva dies later anyway, so it's technically everyone except Battler and Ange.
Kill Em All - "When the seagulls cried, no one had been left alive."
Konami Code - The very first scene Rudolf appears in has him pulling Battler's ear while saying "up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right" as an obvious Shout Out to this.
L-P
Lamarck Was Right - Being a descendent of Kinzo evidently allows you to be able to use magic. Made even more odd by Beatrice's admission that Kinzo himself was never very talented.
Descendants of Kinzo almost universally inherit the key elements of his 'magic', pure blind determination and an idiot's understanding of chance and probability. This clan of human lemmings would be marked for mass extinction in the real world, and indeed are, in the world of Umineko.
This goes even further. Apparently, Kinzo (and thus, Battler) are not only untalented in magic, but have a supernatural resistance to it. And yet…
Lampshade Hanging - In Episode 3 of the sound novels, Beatrice puts a massive lampshade on her own Tsundere behavior in that arc, even mentioning anime and dating sims.
Language Of Truth - Anything spoken in red text is true. If it isn't true, it can't be spoken in red text and may be subject to Unreliable Narration. (And if you actually try to state an untruth in red text, you will come to physical harm.) For whatever reason, this doesn't stop people from throwing around red statements frivolously (Beatrice cackles on two separate occasions in red, and a few characters deliver death threats in red, as if there were doubt about it or something). In EP5, Gold Text is introduced out of nowhere, which according to Word Of God can only be used by those who "understand the rules".
The manga elaborates by precising there are 2 kinds of red truths: those who apply specifically on each separate gameboard (for the circumstances of the deaths, alibis and such), and those who apply to every game and to the world outside the catbox (such as the number of people on the island).
Large Ham: A special one goes out to Jimang, the guy who sang the show's ending theme. It's so over-the-top that it's nearly impossible to see something involving the show without "OH DESIRE." See the character sheet for in-show examples.
In-story, there's Beatrice, Erika and Kinzo.
Laser Blade - Kanon's and the Stakes' swords are very elaborate versions.
Last Kiss - Not quite a kiss, but to similar effect, in the second arc when Beatrice has broken through Shannon's shield, Shannon turns to George and asks him to tell her one last time how much he loves her. He starts, but is cut off.
Also Beatrice kissing Battler before jumping from the boat with the 10kg ingot in the magic ending. Riposa, riposa in pace…
Last Stand - EP8. Ange-Beatrice crashes the afterparty, summons Eva-Beatrice, who in turn summons an infinite horde of goats that begin devouring the game board, forcing the fantasy characters to fight for their lives until the Golden Land opens up.
Law of Inverse Fertility - Partially fed into issues between Natsuhi (unable to conceive for 12 years) and Eva (who gives birth earlier and thinks her son should be the heir).
Leaning on the Fourth Wall - The first tea party has the characters musing about how surprised they were about the "fact" that the story's a fantasy, rather than a mystery.
Battler: "Hey, everyone, good job finishing 'Umineko no Naku Koro ni'! Man, I still didn't have a clue what was going on when the story ended!" Jessica: "So just what happened? Was that basically the 'bad ending,' where time runs out before the culprit can be exposed?" Maria: "Uu-. Definitely a bad ending. Uu-." George: "That's right. Beatrice's letter, which Maria-chan read on the first day, did tell us in advance to solve the riddle of the epitaph. We were all so busy trying to protect ourselves and look for the culprit that we didn't even take a shot at it." Shannon: "... That's right. If we had actually tried to solve the riddle, I'm sure things would have ended differently."
Though this ends up being ruthlessly deconstructed when Battler becomes more and more confused and disturbed by how everyone so readily accepts the fact that it's fantasy instead of mystery, and then everyone else rapidly returns to their state of death, Beatrice reveals herself for the first time, and then she whisks Battler off to Purgatorio where they start their battle of logic that frames the rest of the series. This also functions as a Meta Twist to those who expected a lighthearted "wrap party" with Animated Actors at the end of every arc like in Higurashi.
Leitmotif - Many characters have their own, but Black Liliana can be considered the theme of witches in general.
Left the Background Music On - Two scenes in EP 4 in the novel open with an upbeat jazzy soundtrack, but Ange complains and has Amakusa turn it off.
Legacy Immortality - Battler's hypothesis as to how the figure known as Kinzo Ushiromiya could take so much hands-on action in the fourth game despite dying before the start of any game is that someone took on his name and that the rest of the family acknowledged this.
Later on, this turns out to be how Beatrice can claim to be a thousand years old, since many of her stories relating to her past are really stories of her mother and grandmother, who shared the same name.
Light Is Not Good - The main antagonist, Beatrice, is nicknamed "The Golden Witch" and is said to appear as a flock of golden butterflies. So what does she do during the first four arcs? Oh, only sadistically kill off the entire cast. Later it's revealed that this is more of a case of Light Is Not Nice.
Loads and Loads of Characters - Starts off with the Ushiromiya family, their servants, and Kinzo's physician for a total of 18 people trapped on an island during a storm and goes up from there as Beatrice starts bringing in more of her associates (justifying it as the magical world gaining influence over the game). All the new witches, demons, servants, and Bad Future characters bring the count to 63 named characters, most of whom have a role at some point (although the exact count is made complicated by all the Split Personalities). To give an idea, Ryukishi's previous work had maybe a dozen relevant characters for a story of similar length.
Locked Room Mystery - Invoked many times and taken by some characters as evidence that murders were committed by the Golden Witch rather than by a human. Of course, the point of the game is to not buy any of it.
Limited Wardrobe - With Kanon and Shannon exempted, most of the characters in the VN are only ever seen in one outfit, even in flashbacks, when it is also noted that these are their formal clothes that they're wearing for the family conference (although according to one TIP, Krauss and his family wear formal clothing all the time at home, not just for conferences). The anime and the PS3 port largely avert this trope in the flashbacks, but they still keep them in the same outfits through multiple days, even though, logically, everyone should have known that they would be staying more than one day and packed a change of clothes.
Logical Fallacies - When Battler accuses Eva of lying in red her response is to say "The red only tells the truth." and to accuse Battler of insulting Beato's honor. This is intentional given that "Anti-Mystery vs. Anti-Fantasy" points out that the red truth relies on you trusting Beato. Furthermore, actual evidence supporting the validity of the red truth is presented later on.
Lonely Piano Piece - "Fortitude" is the most common one, although "Wingless" and "Umarete Kite Kurete Arigatou" ("Thank you for being born") also deserve a mention.
A good part of the music could be considered for this. Dai is really fond of using pianos.
Long Lost Relative - Although the moment was suitably surprising for Battler, the audience is set up to have already known "Gretel"'s true identity.
The Lost Woods - The rest of Rokkenjima besides the main mansion is uncultivated forest, and Kinzo's favorite legend involves telling his children that the witch Beatrice lives within the woods, so it's a very dangerous place. He isn't lying, since Rosa stumbles across her hidden mansion after running blindly into the forest.
Lotus-Eater Machine - Beatrice creates her own perfect world with just her and Maria. Also, the Golden Land in the first arc functions this way.
Love Hurts - A major theme, and according to EP7 this is almost entirely the cause of the Rokkenjima Incident. Yasu serves as one of the page quotes for this trope.
Love Makes You Crazy - Kinzo, who became obsessed with the occult as a way to revive Beatrice and happily watches over the start of a ceremony to sacrifice his children. Nevermind about that second point, though, as he eventually turns out to have died over a year ago.
However, Kinzo really was deeply in love with Beatrice Castiglioni, and she with him. Unfortunately, she died in childbirth, with their daughter surviving, and as she grew older her uncanny resemblance to her mother led to Kinzo doing something he'd regret for the rest of his life.
In EP6, Battler also demonstrates this in his desperation to revive Beatrice and his bitter disappointment when the new Beatrice has no memory or personality of the old; he eventually gets over it.
Love Triangle - The cause of the entire tragedy. To elaborate, the cousin-servant couples are Jessica/Kanon, and George/Shannon. However, Battler and Shannon were formerly couples (see Childhood Marriage Promise), and Shannon and Kanon are the same person.
Lyrical Dissonance - The character songs for Beatrice and Maria. Beatrice's character song starts out as an upbeat rock/pop song, but the lyrics are about Beatrice wondering who she lives for and beginning to doubt if she will ever find true happiness; after the first couple verses establish this, the melody gradually becomes more fitting for the song. The case with Maria's character song is not immediately obvious because it has an upbeat tune with upbeat lyrics...until you stop to think about what the lyrics really mean, which is when this trope kicks in full force and turns the song into a Tear Jerker. The comments made by vidread, XanthsAMV, and littlexscreamer explain perfectly why this is a case of Lyrical Dissonance.
The Stakes' image song definitely qualifies. The song contains a cutesy, energetic and upbeat music about how the stakes want to gouge and kill your body.
Mad Bomber: Yasu, who's perfectly willing to blow up in an explosion that wipes out most of the island 9 year old girls (net end result).
As time goes on, things get more complicated. The game continues to go on, but considering that they're by then well-developed characters, are the witches so easy to brush off as non-existent? One could argue that the witches being real or not doesn't change whether the murders are magic or mundane—and if they are mundane, would that really cast doubt on the existence of ageless, extradimensional beings like witches?
Mama Bear - Rosa. Her last act in the second arc is to mow down goat-headed butlers with a rifle and Maria at her side.
Also Natsuhi. Kumasawa actually says in regard to her, "They always say that the most frightening bears are those that have children." It doesn't work, though.
Man Behind the Man - The third tea party has Lambdadelta state that she gave Beatrice her powers in order to create a board to beat Bernkastel in. Later reinforced by the alliance of Bernkastel and Lamdadelta against Beatrice in the fourth tea party.
Marathon Episode - Episode 4. Between Ange's travel in 1998, her learning of Magic while she was Off To Boarding School, Maria's diary and the fourth game, be ready to spend at least a good week reading it. The Ange and diary parts make up a good half of the Episode, and several of the chapters are very long - the 16th chapter has basically the length of three or four normal ones. And that's not even including the Tea Party, which covers Battler investigating the crime scene and the entire final Battle.
Meaningful Funeral - To Beatrice in Requiem. Of course, Bernkastel finds a way to ruin it...
Meaningful Name - Several. Beatrice and Virgilia both derive their names from Dante's Divine Comedy. The "Stakes of Purgatory" have the names of demons corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins. The "Chiester" bunny girls are named after Winchester shotguns. Finally, Lambdadelta's name is Greek for "34", which may hold some significance for those who saw Higurashi.
Also, Maria's name is one that is a common translation of Mary - a reference to the woman from the New Testament who gave birth to Jesus Christ. In the fourth arc, one of the TIPS speculates that Maria is one of the Creator witches, who can create something where there was previously nothing.
The significance of Maria's name is further explored in EP7, and Maria even says that if she had been born a boy, she would have been named Emmanuel, one of the names for Jesus, meaning "God is with us" in Hebrew.
Mental Story: Combined with a Show Within A Show Reveal in Episode 8 — most of the plot is Toya Hachijo attempting to recreate the events of Rokkenjima 1986 as mystery novels in order to speculate on what happened on the island.
Mercy Kill - Ange did one to Eva near the end of the fourth arc. Also, Beato gave one to Maria and Rosa in the third arc.
Wait, what? Everybody's alive again? What do you mean, "wrap party"? So, what, everybody dying was some TV show we were all watching or something? Beatrice!? What are you doing here?!...Wait, none of this was some weird meta gag?!
Of course, if you played Higurashi, it's a double-whammy of a Mind Screw, since Higurashi had wrap parties too. It's just that those ones were non-canon. Thus, when Umineko pulls out the first tea party, the results were a subversion of their use in the previous games.
This goes to new levels in EP5, where depending on how you look at it, there can be 3 or 4 levels of Meta-Worlds.
Episode 6 has another massive one: Ange is reading the part of Dawn to Featherine where Beato asks about information of "old" Beato, in which Featherine opens a door to bring Virgilia and Beato to look through her library. Then later, while Ange is still reading she stops and asks Beato, who was still in the library, a question. MY BRAIN CANNOT FULLY PROCESS THIS.
The manga, which is supervised by Ryūkishi, also adds more clues (notably visual ones) to understand the mysteries and explains some parts of the story more clearly than the sound novels.
Missing Mom - Battler's mother Asumu died, and it's stated outright that Kyrie is more of an older sister than a mom to him. In fact, Battler is distanced from Rudolf because he married Kyrie Too Soon for Battler's taste. Of course, it turns out Asumu wasn't his real mother, and Battler has a HUGE Heroic BSOD when he finds out.
Mood Whiplash - A pretty strong element all throughout the series. While the pattern in Higurashi's arcs was to begin light and funny and get progressively darker and scarier, Umineko relies more on unexpected emotional shock.
Multiple Endings - There's the usual When They Cry stuff with the multiple endings playing into a larger ending, but the last arc itself can also end in two different ways.
Multiple Reference Pun - Similarly to Higurashi, although it may be a bit far-fetched. "Umineko" is a type of seagull, but literally means "sea cat". The term used to describe the endless possible scenarios of Rokkenjima is the "catbox". So the title can mean "When the seagulls cry" or "When the cat in the middle of the sea is dead".
Mundane Made Awesome - It's kinda hard to remember with all of the sound effects and shiny slashes that when characters use red text, blue text, and gold text, they're really only rebutting each other's arguments. It's like the most shiny debate club competition EVAR.
Remove the color tints and special effects at the end of EP4 and you get Battler trying to speak but choking halfway. How Narm.
Lambdadelta's power include bombarding her opponent with… candies.
Dawn has a particularly interesting case and even lampshades it. Erika picks a fight with Maria over the fact that Maria claims Beatrice made candy appear from an empty cup. It escalates to the point where Maria and Erika have a Truth battle to determine whether or not this candy trick was an act of magic. It's a Wizard Duel meets bickering over candy with a 9 year old.
My Master, Right or Wrong: Genji, Shannon and Kanon seem rather unconcerned in the face of Kinzo's actions and all the murders that occur. In reality Kinzo is long dead and Shannon and Kanon are in fact the same person, Yasu, who is Kinzo's illegitimate child with his daughter Beatrice II and is the one Genji considers his new master. Yasu then plan the murders without any protest from Genji, who even helps with covering them up.
34 sympathizes with Eva's "unfortunate childhood a bit".
Maria's letter to whoever discovers the bodies at the end of EP1 is nearly identical to the one Keiichi wrote in Higurashi's Onikakushi-hen.
Unimpressed by his hypotheses at the end of EP4, Lambdadelta suggest that Battler's next crazy theory should be that everyone on the island is infected with Hinamizawa Rokkenjima Syndrome.
Similarly in the first novel, Battler makes it clear that "he's not infected with some disease that makes him scratch his throat to death if he doesn't fondle breasts".
Nearly 90% of the attacks in Ougon Musou Kyoku are these, in fact, the game itself is full of this.
Nested Story Reveal - Episode 8 reveals that most of the plot is Toya Hachijo's attempt to recreate what happened in Rokkenjima by writing mystery novels ("Forgeries") based on the original two message bottles that washed up on the shores of Japan.
Never Found the Body - Anyone who survives until the end of the arc tends to die in this manner. However, even during the arcs, Kanon seems to have these sorts of deaths a lot.
Never Trust a Trailer - The anime's next-episode trailers are full of blatant lies and out-of-character behavior. They're hilarious. Except the last one.
The trailer before the release of the first game opened with the words "No Knox, No Dine, No Fair". Episodes 5 and 7 introduce incarnations of the Knox and Van Dine rules respectively.
A website version. Alchemist announced a Umineko project, but used different characters drawn in the Umineko portrait style. This all turned out to be a joke and the characters were for their new game Galgun, but at the same time they announced Rondo of the Witch and Reasoning
Noblewoman's Laugh - Beatrice is prone to these, and Maria's giggling sometimes morphs into it as well. Lambda has her "O-ho-ho-ho-ho!" in the Visual Novel as well.
No Body Left Behind - The Stakes are some of the few characters NOT to leave gruesome corpses. Unless they're the ones doing the killing, but that's another matter… This also happens every time Kanon dies.
Not so Fast, Bucko! - Used horribly effectively in Requiem. The funeral is over, the rain stops, everyone can go, a sweet piano music plays along with the "Umineko no naku Koro ni" ending screen. Then in the Tea Party, we are brutally reminded that Bernkastel is the Game Master of this Episode. Of course, all the Tea Parties have a twist, but this one is almost an Episode of its own (it's even divided in chapters).
Not With the Safety On, You Won't: Amakusa tries to pull this on Ange in the Trick ending, upon which she calmly replies that the Tokarev does not have a safety and shoots him to death.
No Name Given: Kinzō's wife and Maria's father remain ghost characters until the very end.
Official Couple - There are nothing but these. Not much room for Shipping in this series. George/Shannon, Jessica/Kanon, Rudolf/Kyrie, Eva/Hideyoshi, Krauss/Natsuhi, Beatrice/Battler, Lambdadelta/Bernkastel.
Off Model - There's a bit of a joke among the fandom that the animation is so bad because they blew the budget on the voice actors.
Ominous Pipe Organ - Odds are, if you're magical, your theme tune hits this trope. For some examples, we have "Organ Opusculum No. 600,000,000 in C Minor" (Beatrice), "happiness of marionette" (Eva-Beatrice), and "Dance of the Moon Rabbit" (the Chiester). Though as a subversion, the latter two sound pretty joyful. The best example of the trope in the series is probably Kuina in Episode 5.
On One Condition - If you find the gold before midnight of the second night, you win! If not, "The witch shall be revived. None shall survive."
And even when someone DID find it, "When the seagulls cried, there was but one survivor."
In EP5 the gold was found and a murder occured anyway. Furthermore, while the game ended before everyone died, the author implied in an interview that more people die anyways.
Not to mention EP7: Everyone works together to find the gold… and promptly turn on each other.
Only Known by Their Nickname - Beatrice's name is treated as a title, and indeed, when Eva-Beatrice becomes the new Endless Witch, Beatrice claims that she is now "nameless." Battler then gives her the nickname "Beato" to use, which has been used for her more often than not since.
Opening a Can of Clones - Given all the Reality Warper and Your Mind Makes It Real-type tropes that are involved, this was kind of inevitable. The red text is supposed to defuse the problem a bit, although a lot of it simply hinges on your trust of Beatrice in general.
Our Homunculi Are Different - Beato's explanation of 1967 Beatrice's existence is that Kinzo created a homunculus of her and trapped her soul in it. In EP7, it turns out that this probably isn't true.
Painting The Medium - Red truth is for an absolute truth. Blue truth is for a magic-denying theory. Gold truth is for those who have understood everything of the game board. And Twilight has purple statements for important testimonies in Bernkastel's mystery game.
All dialogue is spoken aloud in the anime (duh) but red text tints the scene red, zooms around in white font, with butterflies circling it, and makes a high-pitched buzzing. (Blue is the same sans butteflies.) In some instances for the final episode of the anime, the text doesn't appear, but the sound effects (a slashing noise for red and a booming noise for blue) remain to imply that what they say is "colored."
Parental Incest - Kinzo fathered a child with the daughter he had with the original Beatrice. What's worse is that since he saw Beatrice II as the reincarnation of her mother, and she could neither return nor understand these feelings, he essentially raped her.
Parent With New Paramour - Battler took very poorly to the fact that Rudolf remarried so quickly after Asumu's death.
Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame - Each member of the cast gets an introductory one in the first episode of the anime.
The Anime's depiction of the meta-world may qualify for this as well.
Pater Familicide - Essentially, Kinzo's plan is this plus spouses and grandkids. Subverted, since Kinzo's dead before it all happens..
Pixellation - It's used a few different times in the anime, although it's removed on the DVDs.
Posthumous Character - Asumu as well as Kinzo and Beatrice. On the magical side, we have Chiester 556.
Post Modernism - And how. The series uses so many tropes from the Metafiction Index that the truth loops around itself and reality becomes unstable. Between deep discussions of what consists mysteries, implications that some of the narrative is untrustable, lampshades of Invoked Tropes, and the entirety of the Meta-World, the viewer is left to guess wildly aboutwhat is going on.
The Power of Hate - This is the essence of black magic as discussed in EP 4. Amakusa and Ange later discuss the idea more thoroughly in EP 8, using child soldiers as a metaphor.
The Power of Legacy - An ongoing theme throughout the series and is pretty much the point of the ending theme "Ricordando il Pasato" ("Remembering the Past")
The Power of Love - According to Episodes 3 and 4, magic was originally intended to bring about happiness and gained its powers through the efforts of love. KnowingRyukishi, this was completely intentional.
This trope is actually examined in different ways throughout the series, and in some cases it's deconstructed most notably in Kinzo's case, since while he and Beatrice Castiglioni were deeply in love, his love for her combined with her Death by Childbirth drove him to sexually abuse their daughter just because she so closely resembled her mother.
Powers That Be - The Witches' Senate may be something of the sort. We are never really explained what it is, what kind of power it has or how its members are designated. We just know that Bern, Lambda and Featherine are part of it and that it's a very bad idea to go against it.
Present Day Past - Internet as presented in Umineko would seem plausible if we talked about 2012. In 1998, though? It wasn't big to the point of having millions of people posting theories about the Rokkenjima incident.
Prolonged Prologue - Legend of the Golden Witch is basically one long prologue, with the meta-duel between Battler and Beatrice beginning only at the very end of the Tea Party.
Psychic Powers - How some believe Ange is able to "talk" with pre-Rokkenjima Maria through Maria's diary.
Puni Plush: Ryukishi07's (in)famous drawing style consists big heads, round faces and… weird hands. Really weird. It appeals to many fans thanks to its expressiveness though.
Real After All - Possibly. After it is seemingly established that witches and fantasy creatures are essentially imaginary beings (or at best exist on a different plane), Episode 8 shows Ikuko/Featherine using the red truth during a press conference in the real world, and not aging the slightest bit in something like 40 years, thus implying that witches do exist after all. Like an ultimate Mind Screw from the author.
Red Herring - One that can be suspected as early as Episode 2 if you pay close attention. Not only are the "epitaph murders" not part of any revival ceremony, the one who supposedly begun said ceremony is long dead.
Retcon - An integral part of the plot. If I mention quantum post-selection paradoxes, would you understand?
In EP6 this concept is weaponized to force Battler to make a Logic Error
Rivals Team Up - In VN Episode 5, Battler, Ronove, Virgilia, Gaap, and the Seven Sisters of Purgatory all band together to give Erika and the Eiserne Jungefrau (particularly Dlanor) a serious beatdown.
In EP 6, Gaap and George and Ronove and Jessica in the first twilight. Kyrie and Leviathan also
In EP 8, Will and Dlanor team up to fight the goats.
Sacrificial Lamb - Subverted in the same way as Higurashi, but slightly more ironic, as those who die first do so as sacrifices to summon Beatrice or not, since that's not why the murders are happening.
Sadistic Choice - Episode 4. In order to gain two, sacrifice one: Your life. Your loved one's life. Everyone else's lives. Amusingly, everyone shown indicates one of the choices, then goes on to Take a Fourth Option anyways.
The entire plot is a sort of variation. Battler must accept magic's existence or blame one of his close relatives. As Beatrice gleefully points out several times. He has big qualms with both.
Episode 4 somehow wanages to make a *pin pon* sound like a schare chord when Gaap stops pretending she's in trouble.
Scenery Porn - Ougon Musou Kyoku has most possibly the most detailed and beautiful battle backgrounds EVER, especially the Meta World ones.
Schrodingers Cat - A recurring motif. Used by Virgilia and Battler to explain why the fantasy scenes happen: as long as the detective can't see them, there's a possibility that it either happened, or it didn't happen. And that in a Closed Circle, two theories (or more) have the same weight of truth until the closed circle is broken.
Catbox is also used as a metaphor for what really happened on Rokkenjima. The only one said to be able to open it is Eva, since she was present. She however chose not do so for the sake of Ange.
Science Destroys Magic - This is the witch's defense for why they don't use magic openly: People don't believe in it anymore which undermines its effectiveness. The validity of the argument is intentionally ambiguous.
Secret Underground Passage - Rokkenjima used to be a military base, so now it gets used for the passage to Kuwadorian.
Serial Escalation - Everything that happens in one game usually gets this treatment in the next; heck, it also happens in the middle of the games themselves, from the awesomely epic magic shows to the badass BGM to the number of characters per game to the ridiculous and outrageous theories for the murders to the amount of memes generated per game. Special mention goes to Episode 5, in which the HSQ reaches its peak.
Servant Race - Furniture is apparently this. Later subverted, since not only is it implied that many of the furniture characters are really Imaginary Friends, but as the series goes on it becomes more apparent that whenever Shannon and Kanon use the word "furniture" it doesn't actually refer to their race or social status; rather, it refers to how Yasu believes that his/her damaged body which is "unable to love" makes him/her less than human.
Sex Equals Love - One of Yasu's issues and part of his/her confusion. Because of what is implied to be Yasu's mutilated sexual organs, s/he is unable to have sex and is afraid that the his/her other selves' love interests (Battler, George and Jessica) will view him/her as a "filthy maggot" if s/he reveals the truth. The series never comments upon whether Yasu is right or not, but the point is that those feelings exist and it's a major factor in Yasu's self-hatred.
Shaggy Dog Story - Though the phrase is never used, some characters discuss whether the story itself should be this in Ep8. Whether the story itself was this is a frequent bone of contention for the fandom.
Shameful Strip - After Battler surrenders to Beatrice in the second arc, he is stripped completely except for a chain around his neck that Beatrice uses as a leash.
Shout Out - Once again, too many to list, so please don't try here.
Show Within a Show - Played for laughs in the manga, where Maria (and Ange in an omake) watches a show called "Magical Bern-chan".
So Happy Together - In the first arc, George proposes to Shannon in a gazebo with all sorts of pretty music playing in the background. Guess who's one of the people found dead the next morning, with the engagement ring on her finger?
Double Subverted since Shannon wasn't really among the corpses, but she was probably the murderer.
The Soulless - From an anti-mystery perspective, furniture.
That's nothing compared to Eva-Beatrice's theme song: It's even called Happiness of Marionette. So when does this play? Whenever the villain of this arc is contemplating how she'll torture people, of course!
Note: if, when playing Umineko, a piece of music is played containing either a pipe organ or a harpsichord (unless it is in the beginning, setting up the Rokenjima family gathering), NOTHING positive is going to happen in that scene. No matter how happy, fun, pleasant, or uplifting it my sound, some serious shit is going down. Someone is either going to: A) Die horribly, B) Have their perception of reality shattered, C) Get trapped in a horrific logic error, D) Have their argument torn to shreds, E) THINK that they are going to win, then get completely and utterly beaten, or F) All of the above!
Split Personality - Eva-Beatrice and Eva, which could also qualify as something of a Literal Split Personality and possibly an Enemy Without. It's also heavily implied that three other characters are really the same person.
Spoiler Opening - In each arc the opening animations change, most notably the portrait. The second animation set shows Beatrice's Human Form, and the third set shows Eva-Beatrice, Virgilia, and the Siestas. The fourth one shows all three portraits, another Siesta, and Maria's witch outfit.
The opening of the PS3 port is very bad with it. Showing quickly important scenes without context may not be bad enough, but showing characters whose very existence are a big surprise for first time players make sure a good part of the mood of the first few episodes are completely changed.
Stay in the Kitchen - While growing up, Eva was repeatedly told by her family that she fails as a woman because she didn't know how to do feminine things. The creation of EVA-Beatrice largely stems from her resentment of this.
Also, Krauss repeatedly shuts Natsuhi up. Unfortunately this isn't to his benefit, since she basically runs the house and has much more common sense than he does while he squanders their money on poorly thought-out business ventures.
Straw Feminist - Arguably Eva-Beatrice: the side of Eva's personality that wants her to break out of the Ushiromiya family's restrictive gender roles turns out to be, in Eva's own words, her "evil side". And then kills people.
Succession Crisis - There were all sorts of tensions laid about. Then Beatrice's letter shows up (effectively forcing the current heir, Krauss, to fight for his position), and all hell breaks loose.
According to Battler's final game, this is apparently subverted, since Kinzo makes an official succession ceremony and distributes the inheritance to the family.
Also averted outright in EP7, since there is no epitaph and Kinzo already has an appointed successor, Lion Ushiromiya.
Summon Magic - Just about all furniture requires this.
Surprisingly Good Italian - Akiko Shikata, who composed the VN and anime's opening and the VN's final ending ; what can be more fitting for the series than a Japanese woman who can write and sing in Italian?
Take That, Audience! - A rather unsubtle one in EP8 towards the readers. A seemingly endless bunch of goat-headed creatures making hilariously stupid theories and demanding answers from the creators. Some even took this quite offensive. Lampshaded in-story.
The enjoyment comes from sorting and thinking to reach the truth, and not demanding it.
Take Up My Sword - In EP5, Battler becomes the Endless Sorcerer after Beatrice is killed by Erika
Taking the Bullet - In the third arc, Belphegor does this to protect Eva-Beatrice.
In the second arc, Jessica takes a Stake for Kanon. It doesn't really accomplish much, since Beato has 6 more.
Talking Is a Free Action - Gleefully averted. In the first arc, Kanon has a long rant about how he's going to kill himself and ruin Beatrice's plans, but she sics a Stake on him before he gets around to acting on it. There's also an awful lot of people dying in the middle of trying to say something important. The anime, on the other hand, fell a victim to this trope with a Jessica falling to the ground in a bullet time and talking at the same time.
Played straight later in the novels, Battler's debate with Beato at the end of the fourth arc and the trial at the end of the fifth arc last a minute each.
Talking To Themself/Acting for Two - It takes more than half the series for the readers to realize that these tropes are in effect whenever Shannon talks to Kanon, but in Episode 7 this fact becomes obvious. Also, no matter how you look at it Beatrice is Acting For Many in both the Meta-World and the piece-world.
Tangled Family Tree - And how. It's revealed in EP7 that Kinzo had a daughter with Beatrice I, and then had another daughter/son with that daughter. Said second daughter/son is in a relationship with at least two of Kinzo's grandchildren. Gender ambiguity actually being a plot point here. You do the math.
Tastes Like Diabetes - invoked Played with at the beginning of Episode 3. One cute scene has the cousins and Shannon all fooling around on the beach, then everyone promising that they will always get along while holding hands, with Jessica lampshading how embarrassing it is… and then the screen breaks and we brutally switch to the meta-world, while Beatrice cackles that, nope, there won't be such happy ending. Did we mention she is a bit of a Troll?
Tempting Fate - "Unless messing up sets off a trap that blows up the island, of course." You just had to say it, Beato.
With the exception of Kinzo, the blood members of the Ushiromiya family all have Western names transliterated from kanji. Battler is the Odd Name Out, being a translation instead. Yasu is even more of an Odd Name Out but is a justified case, unlike Battler's.
Many of the servants have 音 (non/on/ne, meaning "sound") as part of their names.
All the women related to Battler also are named from Christian mythos (Kyrie Eleison = The Kyrie Prayer, Assum = Assumption into heaven, and Ange = Angel).
As for the magical characters, several are named after characters appearing in Dante's Divine Comedy: Beatrice, Virgil (Virgilia), and Bernard of Clairvaux (Clair Vauxof Bernard) are all Dante's guides.
The demons' names are taken from the Ars Goetia (Ronove, Gaap, Zepar and Furfur), and the Stakes of Purgatory are all named after demons that are associated with the sins they represent according to Peter Binsfield's classification of demons.
The Chiesters are named after different types of ammunition.
Dlanor A. Knox and Willard H. Wright are both named after detective novelists (Ronald A. Knox and S.S. Van Dine, respectively), who each wrote a set of guidelines on how mystery novels should be written in order to be solvable.
The Summation - Repeatedly subverted to leave it up to the viewer to solve the mystery.
Thirteen Is Unlucky - A total of 13 people are killed in the epitaph's ceremony.
Time Travel - Ange is an interesting case. It is not clear when or where the Meta-World is, but Battler and Beatrice's fight takes place in 1986; Ange lives in 1998 and with Bernkastel's assistance reaches the Meta-World. One way of explaining this is that since Episodes 1 and 2 (sans Meta-World sequences) were found as message bottles after 1986, all Ange is doing is metaphorically going back to 1986 and trying to find out what really happened. In such a case, this probably counts as a subversion.
Those Two Bad Guys: Bernkastel and Lambdadelta. Probably not coincidentally, the words "miracle" and "certainty" are found very often in the same sentence, in several character's mouths.
Title Drop - Over and over again by Battler. "When the seagulls cry" refers to when the typhoon is over and everything's safe. It's also used at the very end to give the body count. Er… perhaps "survivor count" might be a better description.
Several Episodes also drop their own title in the dialogue.
In EP 2, there's Shannon. In the first arc she seems to be a generic shy MoeMeido archetype who becomes cannon fodder early on. Cue the second arc when she stands up to the witch who's supposedly killing everyone and basically tells her that because she gets enjoyment from seeing them squirm, she's not going to react to give her the satisfaction. Not to mention the barrier powers...
Battler, who was level grinding throughout the entire series so far, and boy does it show in the later ones.
The Tragic Rose - The rose garden in front of the Ushiromiya mansion, and Maria's search for her marked rose.
The Treachery of Images - A plot point actually. Battler is nearly won over in the third arc when Beatrice starts showing him visually spectacular witch battles, but Virgilia reminds him that this is still a narrative being told by Beatrice, so he should take the visuals with a few cellars of salt. By the time the 7th arc rolls around it's blatantly obvious in regards to at least 3 characters, if not more. Those who want to solve the mystery by then should take to heart the fact that the story is basically lying to the readers as much as it can without distorting the truth.
Troll: The witches in general, though depending on the witch, their trolling can be somewhat amusing in a dark comedy sort of way. Special nod goes to Bernkastel, who's trolling is not only incredibly cruel, but absolutely not funny. She ain't called Trollkastel for nothing you know.
In Beato and Battler's case, this is subverted massively in Episode 3, but appears to be true in Episode 4 anyway..
Battler even talks about it in EP5.
Battler: When she comes back again, I'm going to tell her "You're such a tsundora."
Two Dun It: A possible theory about the truth of Rokkenjima is that the events are caused by two teams working independent of each other, one planning and one opportunistic. The first one is the servants and one of the siblings (which one depends on the arc) led by Yasu who plans the murders (the one among the sibling and a few of the servants think it's just a game) in order to become free from his/her fate or that Battler solves the case and finds out the truth. The other one would be Kyrie who took a chance when the gold was found and is hinted to be the main culprit.
Understatement - Episode 22's title in the anime, "Problem Child". In regards to Maria. For some context, that's the one where she kills her mother over and over and over. Hard not to cheer for her though, considering that Rosa is the BEST MOM EVER.
Unexpected Successor - Kinzo, actually. The Ushiromiya family used to be very powerful, and Kinzo was a member of "a branch of the branch family." Then, an earthquake took out just about everything, and it was up to Kinzo to restore the family to its former glory.
Not even that. The elders of the family were still alive and intended to use Kinzo as a figurehead, and he even knew that they were going to make a puppet out of him. Somewhere along the lines, he decided to take matters into his own hands, presumably with the help of Beatrice I.
The Unreveal - The reader never learns what really happened on Rokkenjima. They are only ever given hints to reason the answer for themselves. The reason given in-game is that by never revealing the truth, Ange's hope for a miracle that everyone survived can never be denied. The truth is at least something disturbing enough to drive poor Ange to suicide.
And similarly, we are never shown what Ange saw in Kawabata's house in Episode 4.
Unusual Euphemism: Referring to the servants as "furniture" ("kagu" in Japanese). EP7 reveals that it was coined by Yasu, and it's actually a euphemism for something worse; namely, because of his/her mutilated body which "can't love", he/she may as well not be human...in fact, he/she may as well be furniture.
The Untwist - invoked Ryūkishi07 perfected this to an artform. A rule of thumb when you're reading Umineko is that offhand comments or theories made by the characters should not be dismissed casually. This trope is outright mentionned in Our Confession.
"If, say, Natsuhi says that the servants are the culprits, the reader will naturally assume she must be wrong. It's a confusion technique."
Unreliable Narrator - A key part of the plot. It's explicitly stated that anything not in red text is liable to be false. What is in red text? ...Not very much...
Episode 5 spells out what can and can't be taken as reliable - For episodes 1-4, only scenes that piece Battler narrates, For episode 5, only scenes that Erika narrates (which are very few).
So does the ending of the series. You'll never look at it the same way again.
Utopia Justifies the Means - Battler speculates that the reason Maria is so calm about everyone dying is the promise at the tenth twilight that she'll reach the Golden Land and everything will be restored - and her mother will be nicer to her to boot.
Verbal Tic - U~~. This is later shown to be not just a random noise.
Viewers Are Geniuses - In order to understand what the show really is about, you need to pay attention to a lot of small details such as where the characters get hurt, where do they die, who talked about fantasy, etc.
However, Ryūkishi felt obliged to add hints like the catbox talk in Banquet because after Episode 2 many people had started giving up when the fantasy scenes popped up. In other words, he was forced to realize that, no, viewers are not geniuses.
Wasted Song - Ougon Musoukyoku uses songs directly taken out of the game, like goldenslaughterer or haze and worldend dominator, which usually last for about at least five minutes, on a game where the average match doesn't lasts more that 3 minutes, which means you won't hear all of the song unless you deliberately pause the game.
Weirdness Censor - In the anime, almost no attention is drawn to Maria's cackling, odd foreknowledge, and general sociopathy by other characters (the biggest example is probably the Mood Whiplash above). In the manga, Battler reacts with proper dread at her mysterious statements most of the time, and while he tries to laugh it off in the visual novels, he does find it troubling.
Well Done Daughter Girl - Natsuhi has this to Kinzo, her father-in-law, as she loves him very much and desperately wants his approval. And she wants it so bad that she is driven to psychosis after he dies, imagining his ghost is praising and reassuring her. Bernkastel later makes a point of telling her in the red that he never thought she was good enough.
Which Me? - There are about twelve different versions and variations of the Beatrices. Eleven if Shannon and Kanon are separate people, but that's still one hell of a lot. Some of them have their own names (Ange-Beatrice is usually known simply as "Ange", unless some distinction between 1998 and meta-1986 needs to be made), some have last names that are applicable (Beatrice Castiglioni), and some of them simply have fan-created names, because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to figure out who someone was referring to (Moetrice, suit![or sometimes, piece!]Beatrice, Beatroll, etc.).
White Magic - According to Virgilia, this was initially the purpose of Endless Magic. However, the magic itself can be used for either this or Black Magic depending upon the intentions of the user.
Whodunnit To Me - "Battler Ushiromiya, at this time, I will kill you. And right now, there is no one on the island other than you. The only one alive on this island is you. Nothing outside the island can interfere in any way. And of course, I am not you. However, I am here now and will kill you."
Whole Plot Reference - The relationship between Battler and Beatrice is this towards The Divine Comedy with Beatrice waiting for Battler to find the truth referencing the eternal lady waiting for Dante at the top of Mount Purgatory. Several other names in the series also references the book and fulfill the same roles.
The book and the similarities are referenced in Ep 5 when Battler reach the truth:
''Vergilius guided Dante to Mount Purgatory, ... and brought him below the feet of the eternal lady who waited at the top, Beatrice. Therefore, ... the innermost depths lay not at the bottom. ... but at the peak of Mount Purgatory. The eternal lady... had been waiting there for Dante... the whole time... And then...I...knew.
The mystery setting is also explicitly inspired by And Then There Were None: people gather on an isolated island and receive a mysterious message sent from an unknown person. And then people are killed one by one, following a text displayed in the house. This is mentioned in Episode 7.
Who Wants to Live Forever? - Most of the witches have been driven near-mad with sheer boredom after centuries or even millennia. Bernkastel repeatedly refers to boredom as "the witches' sickness".
Wimpification - Battler gets this in fandoms on both sides of the ocean. The fighting game acknowledges this with a few of the scenarios (Battler/Ronove, Dlanor/Virgilia, Ange/Virgilia) playing to it. Ange also has a rare in-battle opening line against Virgilia referencing this.
Witch Species - The fourth arc's TIPS describes three different types described in ascending power: Witches, who can possess immense power in one world that is considered to be its dominion; Voyagers, who can travel freely in between the different fragments; and Creators, who can "create a one in a world of nothingness."
The Fair Folk - The concept of witches used here actually has more in common with a lot of the older stereotypes of fairies than witches.
Word Puree Title - A good number of the musics in the OST have this, like "System 0", "Lie-alaia", "Bore-ral", "F Style", "LixAxil", "l&d circulation" or "Ruriair". The climax musics from zts are all english words approximately mashed together with no space: "worldenddominator", "dreamenddischarger" or "lastendconductor" to name a few.
World of Buxom - Virtually every female over the (apparent) age of 13 is noticeably… "blessed". Especially true of the Ushiromiya clan.
Boobs in this series come in two sizes; almost non-existent (Lambdadelta, Maria) and DD (every other female). Bernkastel is either totally flat or mildly busty depending on the author.
Wrong Genre Savvy - Battler doesn't believe in the supernatural and tries to find mundane explanations for everything bizarre happening on the island. Oddly enough, Beatrice seems amused by his denial and traps him in a time loop, challenging him to find a mundane explanation each time. Or something. He eventually realizes by EP5 that he must change his priorities, and becomes one of the most appropriately Genre Savvy characters in the series.
Also, it may be Erika and Dlanor case in EP5. They use the "fact" that they are in a mystery to use Knox's Decalogue as basis of most of their deductions. However, it was never stated that the Decalogue is really valid (Dlanor even acknowledges this).
Yellow Brick Road - Jessica and the Killer Electric Fan. Basically, Jessica wrote a nonsensical script for the school festival play, but Lambdadelta found it amusing to enchant it. So when she, Battler and Shannon try to rehearse it, they are transported in the world of the play and must follow the script until the end to get out. At the end, a giant killer electric fan appears beneath their feet, despite being mentionned nowhere in the script. It turns out Jessica wanted to write "FIN" at the end but wrote "FAN" instead.
You Are Worth Hell - The fantasy ending of the series has Battler declare this for Beatrice.
You Bastard - In the Tanabata side story, Bern addresses the reader several times during her section, repeatedly asking, implying, and outright stating that they prefer seeing the sort of twisted 'wish-granting' she indulges in. Looking back, considering how Higurashi's ending was midldy appreciated because it was "too happy" for the series, she may not be totally wrong.
You Can't Fight Fate - Ange helps even knowing that going back in time to help Battler won't fix her own timeline: just the one that Battler will now go to which makes her a Future Badass. In the end she can't fix Battler's timeline either, but it still turns out that aside from Eva he was the only one to make it off of Rokkenjima alive.
, acknowledged by Ryukishi07 himself. The patches require an original copy of the game, which may be found on the links page of the translation site.
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